02/19/1920 • 7 views
Early scientific note on contagious yawning, February 19, 1920
On February 19, 1920, a brief clinical observation recorded what appears to be the first documented instance of contagious yawning being studied in a scientific or medical context, noting yawns triggered among people in proximity.
Context and nature of the record
The 1920 note reflects the medical and observational practices of the time: clinicians and naturalists often published brief case reports and anecdotes in journals and society proceedings. The account describes a situation in which one person’s yawn appeared to trigger yawns in nearby individuals. It does not include modern experimental controls, standardized measures, or hypotheses about neural mechanisms; rather, it is a descriptive observation intended to record a curious social and physiological occurrence.
Why the 1920 note matters
Researchers who later studied contagious yawning have treated this early record as historically significant because it shows recognition of the phenomenon well before it became a subject of laboratory research. The entry demonstrates that observers were aware of yawning’s social spread and considered it worth reporting, providing a starting point for tracing how scientific attention to the behavior developed.
Limitations and caution
The 1920 record is not a controlled experiment. It lacks the methodological detail expected in contemporary research: no sample size calculation, no control conditions, and little information about observers’ criteria for counting yawns. Because of these limitations, the note cannot establish frequency, causation, or underlying mechanisms. Later experimental work—beginning in earnest decades later—used video stimuli, standardized protocols, and statistical analysis to address those questions.
What later research found
From the late 20th century onward, researchers investigated contagious yawning with controlled methods. Studies examined whether seeing, hearing, or imagining yawns triggers yawning; whether contagion correlates with empathy and social bonding; and how susceptibility changes across age and in certain clinical populations. Those studies built on early descriptive records like the 1920 note by providing systematic data, though many questions about neural circuitry and social function remain active areas of research.
Historical significance
The 1920 observation is best understood as an early, informative entry in a long-running curiosity about yawning’s social dynamics rather than as definitive evidence about causes. It documents that observers a century ago were attentive to subtle social-physiological interactions and serves as a useful marker in the historical timeline of research on contagious behaviors.
If you seek the original source
The 1920 account appears in the form of a brief clinical or society note rather than a full empirical paper. For verification and citation, consult archives of medical and naturalist journals from that year or later historical reviews of yawning and social contagion that reference early observations. Because bibliographic records vary, interested readers should check primary-source databases and historical indexes to locate the exact publication.